| Major parties |
| Labour | - Retain current personal, company and trust tax rates and thresholds.
- Raise the GST-registration threshold to $80,000 from 1 July 2028.
- Introduce a 28% capital gains tax on gains arising after 1 July 2027 when commercial or residential investment property is sold, subject to exemptions. Family home and farms are excluded.
| - Replace Investment Boost with a $10,000 immediate asset write-off for businesses with annual revenue below $10 million from 1 July 2027.
- Require qualifying large businesses to pay small suppliers’ invoices of $25,000 or less within 15 days and publish payment times within 100 days of Labour Government.
- Set a target of 15% of government contracts for New Zealand small businesses and start-ups, and split some large contracts into smaller packages.
- Reduce repeated information requests across government and introduce a small-business test for new laws, regulations and procurement rules.
- Establish an independently governed New Zealand Future Fund to invest in local infrastructure, innovative businesses and assets and projects with both commercial and public good purpose.
- Establish an Office of AI and a framework to recognise and pay creators when AI systems use their work.
- Invest in school upgrades, hospital repairs and social housing through the Start Work Now programme.
| - Compulsory employer KiwiSaver contributions from 1 July 2028, rising to 6% by 2032, including when an employee reduces or pauses their own contributions.
- KiwiSaver contributions during paid parental leave and for workers over 65, and a ban on new total-remuneration arrangements that absorb employer contributions.
- Extend Apprenticeship Boost employer payments to two years at $500 a month from 1 July 2028, with a $1,000 toolbox grant, five additional eligible trades and structured mentoring.
- Introduce a Māori-led trades training programme.
|
| National | - No new taxes.
- Reduce compliance costs and administrative burden by simplifying interactions with government agencies and regulatory requirements.
| - Introduce engineer sign-off for specified commercial building work and a national building-consent pathway for large commercial projects.
- Prioritise new trade agreements, expand paperless trade and digital customs, and streamline support for exporters.
- Implement Electrify NZ 2.0 measures intended to increase electricity supply, competition and connection options for businesses.
- Reset International Visitor Levy funding so councils receive direct return for visitor-they host.
| - Make KiwiSaver or an equivalent scheme compulsory for all workers from 1 July 2028, with combined default employee and employer contributions rising to 12% by 2032.
- Provide a government KiwiSaver contribution for people receiving paid parental leave and require employer contributions for contributing workers aged over 65 from 1 July 2027.
- Increase paid parental leave from 26 to 30 weeks in stages by 1 July 2029 and allow parents to take some or all of their leave at the same time.
- Retain annual-leave accrual and full holiday-pay protections for people returning from parental leave from 1 July 2027.
- Make it easier for small businesses to hire their first employee, engage seasonal workers and take on apprentices.
- Speed up employment dispute resolution to reduce uncertainty, cost and management time for business owners.
|
| Minor parties |
| ACT | - Allow deductions for productive software and digital investment.
- Clarify tax and legal settings for tokenised and digital assets, including exemptions for low-value purchases and a 12-month bright-line rule for qualifying long-term investments.
- Remove the $33,333 cap on tax benefits for charitable donations.
- Give councils $1 per visitor guest night from existing GST and visitor-levy revenue.
| - Set rules for payment stablecoins and create a supervised financial-innovation sandbox.
- Increase competition and investment in electricity generation and networks, including access and surplus-power sales.
- Repeal the Zero Carbon Act, benchmark emissions settings against trading partners, change ETS settings and oppose agricultural emissions pricing.
| - Remove tax on KiwiSaver earnings and government contributions for members receiving employer contributions.
- Reassess skilled-work categories annually and levy a daily infrastructure surcharge on temporary work visas.
- Tighten English-language, work-right and resident-visa travel requirements.
- Freeze the adult minimum wage for three years and introduce a training wage for eligible workers under 20.
- Allow protected negotiations for mutually agreed employment exits, with consent and advice safeguards, and require personal grievance proceedings within three months of the grievance being raised.
- Introduce three-year rural workforce visa with employer mobility, a potential residence pathway and no infrastructure surcharge.
|
| Green | - Apply a 33% company tax rate to the largest 0.7% of corporations while retaining 28% for SMEs.
- Introduce a 2.5% tax on net assets above $10 million, excluding family homes.
- Tax inherited and gifted assets above $1 million, excluding family homes and family farms.
- Introduce additional taxes on major banks and offshore profits of large technology companies.
| - Use competition and regulatory measures aimed at large supermarkets, banks, energy companies and other highly concentrated markets.
- Support public and community-led renewable energy and expand investment in lower-emissions transport and infrastructure.
| - Introduce automatic union membership, with an opt-out, for employees in workplaces covered by a collective agreement.
- Broaden industrial-action rights.
- Increase the minimum wage by at least the rate of inflation.
- Strengthen tests distinguishing employees from independent contractors.
|
| NZ First | - Cut company tax from 28% to 20% for businesses with turnover below $30 million.
| - Propose a Future Fund of up to $100 billion for long-term infrastructure.
- Merge BNZ and Kiwibank into a larger Crown-owned bank supporting agriculture, infrastructure and SMEs.
- Separate electricity generation and retail operations and support new generation.
- Create a Marsden Point Special Economic Zone with streamlined approvals and potential incentives.
- Return 50% of mining royalties to producing regions and provide clearer zones and longer permits.
- Invest $1 billion in mapping domestic energy, geothermal and carbon-storage resources.
| - Make KiwiSaver compulsory for the wider workforce, with employee and employer contributions rising to 8%, then 10%.
- Hold a referendum on a 20,000 annual resident-visa cap and link immigration to infrastructure capacity.
|
| Opportunity | - Introduce personal income-tax rates of 28% up to $50,000, 34% from $50,001 to $200,000, and 39% above $200,000.
- Introduce an annual land value tax of 1.75% on urban land and 0.5% on rural land, with possible exemptions or deferrals for some land-rich, cash-poor owners.
- Introduce a Citizen’s Income of up to $370 a week for most adults, replacing most benefits while retaining additional support for some groups.
- Increase research and development investment to 2% of GDP, including through targeted tax credits.
- Fund simple financial and accounting advice for small businesses.
- Strengthen competition settings and create an Impact Company legal structure for social enterprises.
| - Reverse the ban on merchant surcharges if enacted and review competition in payment infrastructure.
- Create a new infrastructure fund and lock a long-term national infrastructure plan into law.
- Direct a greater share of infrastructure spending to maintenance.
| - Introduce compulsory KiwiSaver 2.0, with employee and employer contribution rates each rising gradually to 6%.
- Review ACC levies with a view to risk-weighted treatment for people undertaking multiple types of work.
|
| Te Pāti Māori | - Introduce personal income-tax rates of 0% up to $30,000, 15% from $30,001 to $60,000, 33% from $60,001 to $90,000, 39% from $90,001 to $180,000, 42% from $180,001 to $300,000, and 48% above $300,000.
- Raise the company tax rate to 33%.
- Introduce a targeted wealth tax, multiple property-related taxes and an international profit-transfer tax.
- Introduce an income-tax kai credit.
- Provide an additional $1 billion to address tax evasion and fraud.
| - Establish the Oranga Whenua Oranga Tangata Fund to strengthen Māori businesses.
- Allocate 25% of government procurement to Māori businesses.
- Establish a Māori Trade Commission.
- Establish a $1 billion Energy Sovereignty Fund and support a Māori energy workforce and industry.
| - Raise the minimum wage to the living wage.
- Protect union access, multi-employer collective bargaining and collective bargaining for contractors.
- Remove youth wage rates.
|
